How to Achieve Painless Multilingual Localization

Successful multilingual localization can seem like an overwhelming process, but it doesn’t have to be. With the right strategies—using advanced translation software, choosing the right human translators, and centralizing localization—you can make the translation process faster and easier while saving money and getting ahead of your competition.

Translation Software

Translation on a large scale can be costly and time-consuming if the process is managed manually, but here’s where translation software comes in. It provides a wide expanse of tools that make multilingual website localization smooth and hassle-free.

Translation memory, for example, is a software tool that allows you to store previous translations in a database and re-use them for future translations. This makes the process faster as there is less content to translate, especially as your database grows. Spending less time translating saves you money in the long run and, as an added benefit, establishes consistency within your content—a key factor in representing a language that leads to successful content localization.

Translation proxy allows content (everything from text to images) to be extracted automatically and prepped for translation, cutting down on the time and assets it would otherwise take to recode new translations.

Centralize Localization

Centralizing your website’s localization process has several benefits: greater consistency, better control over translation quality, faster turnaround time, and lower costs due to translation re-use. Translation software makes it much easier to localize your content in this way, because it provides you with all the tools you need on one platform.

Further, translation workflows allow you to track and manage the localization process from start to finish. Through a single platform you can communicate with content translators and reviewers to track their work and provide feedback, making it easier to manage multiple websites and languages at the same time. It also allows you to customize the translations per each site’s individual needs without losing authenticity across each page.

Tools like style guides, glossaries, and translation memory can also aid in centralization by preserving your brand voice and maintaining linguistic consistency. Style guides and glossaries, for instance, create guidelines for your translators and editors so your entire team is on the same page when implementing a brand voice and tone of which you are the “coach,” regardless of what language it’s in. Translation memory re-uses translated segments and keywords, ensuring that your content upholds a rigid format and avoids any translation snafus, even when working with multiple translators and languages.

Professional Human Translation

After spending money and time to expand your business in the global market, the last thing you want is poor translation become a stumbling block to your success. Although machine translation can be fast and less expensive, context and cultural nuances can only be handled properly by a human being. Localization isn’t simply about translating words; it’s about tailoring your website to the customs of a unique culture in order to build your reputation, which ultimately leads to long-term success. The best path to translation that not only reads correctly, but truly speaks to the audience you’re trying to reach, is by investing in human translators within your platform.

With the proper tools at your disposal, multilingual localization can be pain-free. Consider how localization software can save you time and money, and provide the highest-quality translation possible for a brand new audience.

Image source: BigStock

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About Shahrzad Warkentin

Shahrzad Warkentin is freelance writer who is passionate about connecting with audiences through great storytelling. For the past five years she’s covered a variety of topics, with a focus on brand marketing techniques. She speaks three different languages, including Swedish and Farsi.